Engavings

SECOND PERIOD (1605-1620)

In "The Festival of the Rosary", painted in Venice for German merchants residing there, he competes, not unsuccessfully, with the Italian colourists, though it may be said that colour was not his strong point. The painting (Abbey of Strahow, Prague) is damaged, but a good copy is preserved in the Imperial Museum at Vienna. An oil painting of the same period, "Christ on the Cross", and other works that followed, e.g. "Adam and Eve" (Madrid and Florence), show that Durer's trip to Italy and the acquaintance made there with Giovanni Bellini were not without profit to his art; but Durer's nationality and the independence of his genius are always evident. Another work much admired was the so-called Heller altar-piece, destroyed in Munich in 1674 by fire. Valuable studies for this picture and an indistinct copy are still extant. One of the finest examples of German art is the "Adoration of the Trinity" or "All Saints" (1511). Placed beside the "Disputa" of Raphael or the Sistine paintings of Michaelangelo, produced in the same year, it would not suffer from the comparison. God the Father sits upon a throne and holds forth the Cross with the Crucified; above both of them, in the form of a dove, the Holy Ghost hovers. About them the saints of heaven in two companies with the Mother of God and John the Baptist at their head kneel in adoration. In the upper part of the picture, above the blessed hosts, choirs of angels surround the Holy Trinity; in the lower part, the Church Militant, led by the powerful figure of a pope and an emperor, takes part in the adoration. As an idealization of the world this multitude stands above the clouds. At the very bottom and to one side, as though left behind, is seen the humble figure of the painter. This work deserves no less praise for its perfection of finish than for its sublimity of conception. The frame, carved in renaissance style from drawings by Durer, is still preserved at Nuremberg. In the same year, 1511, Durer produced the "Virgin with the Pear", one of the finest of his Madonnas. In the years 1513-14 he executed three great copperplate engravings: these may, perhaps, be looked upon as ideal representations of a fearless knight, an unsatisfied searcher for knowledge, and a saint happy in God and are called: "The Knight with Death and the Devil"; "Melancholia"; "Saint Jerome in His Study". To these must be added various paintings, e.g. of Charlemagne, Sigmund, and Albrecht of Brandenburg; further, the marginal drawings, displaying much fancy and humour, made for Maximillian's "Prayer Book", and the "Triumphal Arch of Maximillian" belong to the same time. Later, Durer worked also on the "Triumph of Maximillian", and produced the large "Triumphal Car", for the emperor.